Adam Ingram: I am today announcing a number of changes to the Army's regional command structure.
	The command of garrisons across the UK is inconsistent, with a variety of commanders from different chains of command holding garrison command responsibility. Responsibility for administration, both within the Army and with external organisations, can at times be unclear. To address these anomalies:
	(I) From April 2007 garrisons should be commanded by the local regional forces brigade commander
	(II) If there is no deployable brigade commander in the garrison, then command will fall to the senior officer with most troops in that garrison.
	RF Brigade and Division Structure
	Changes to the regional brigade and divisional structure are proposed in order to bring project Allenby-Connaught under a single General Officer Commanding and improve alignment to regional prime contractors. These changes will also enable the army to develop the super garrison concept and ensure an even distribution of the potential future super garrison sites. The changes will entail:
	(1) 43 (Wessex) Brigade moving under command 4 Division, so 4 Division comprises all the southern brigades (43 (Wessex) Brigade,145 (Home Counties) Brigade and 2 (Infantry) Brigade) on 1 April2007.
	(2) 49 (East) Brigade moving under command 5 Division, so5 Division comprises the central formations (160 (Wales) Brigade, 143 (West Midlands) Brigade and 49 (East) Brigade) on 1 April 2007.
	(3) 38 (Irish) Brigade (which will form from 39 Inf Bde and 107 (Ulster) Brigade) moving under command 2 Division and, simultaneously, 42 (North West) Brigade moving to come under command 5 Division. No date is yet set for these changes, as it will be dependent upon the rate of the Northern Ireland Normalisation process.
	(4) The Single Point of Accountability for the Colchester PFI transferred to the General Officer Commanding 5 Division (Major General Farquhar) when the GOC 4 Division retired in May 2006. General Officer Commanding 4 Division will assume responsibility for Allenby-Connaught from Commander Regional Forces during 2007.
	The maps showing these changes will be placed in the Library of the House
	Army Recruiting and Training Division (ARID) and Recruiting Group (RG).
	With effect from April 2007, the Army Recruiting and Training Division (previously ATRA) will come under Command of Commander Regional Forces. This measure is being trialled this year, but as part of this transfer, from 1 April 2006, Commander Regional Forces has assumed responsibility for the planning of national level recruiting, in tandem with this, Regional Brigade commanders will be responsible for recruiting Regular and TA soldiers. This will allows a more coordinated approach in this key area.
	All of these changes are purely administrative in nature and they will not involve any physical movement of troops.

EU Energy Council

John Hutton: I am pleased to announce that from 1 December 2006 Sir Richard Tilt will serve a further three-year period as social fund commissioner for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Sir Richard, who has already served two terms as Commissioner, was successful after an open recruitment exercise.

James Plaskitt: The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will be held on 1 December in Brussels. My hon. Friend, the Minister for Employment Relations and Minister for London, will represent the UK. Health and consumer affairs issues are being taken on 30 November.
	The first item is the communication from the Commission: Green Paper on adapting labour law to ensure flexibility and security for all. This will be a presentation from the Commission and exchange of views. The document was published on 22 November.
	The Council hopes to adopt the Council conclusions on decent work that essentially promote the International Labour Organisation response to the global jobs crisis.
	The Council will look at two aspects of responding to the challenges of globalisation and demographic change:
	a) Enhancing higher productivity and more and better jobs including for people at the margins of the labour market. This will be an endorsement of Employment Committee opinion.
	b) Commission communication: "The demographic future of Europe—from challenge to opportunity". This will be a presentation by the Commission and then the endorsement of the Social Protection Committee opinion
	There will be Council conclusions on the review of the implementation by the member states and the EU institutions of the Beijing platform for action and men and gender equality. Following the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, the Council asked member states to undertake an annual review of the implementation of the resulting platform for action.
	Council hopes to reach political agreement on the amended proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing for the period 2007-13 the specific programme "Fight against violence (Daphne)" as part of the general programme "Fundamental Rights and Justice".
	There will be a progress report from the presidency on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving the portability of supplementary pension rights. This is intended to make it easier for workers with occupational pensions to move around the EU. Member states will be invited to take part in the policy debate to make their positions clear.
	The Council will aim to reach agreement on a partial general approach on both the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/04 on the co-ordination of social security schemes and the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the co-ordination of social security systems, and determining the content of Annex XI.
	Under "Any Other Business" the Chair of the Employment Committee will give a report on the examination of national reform programme. The Chair of the Social Protection Committee will give a progress report on work on social services of general interest.